Safe and Sound
by dancingtothebeatles
Summary: Even in the dead of night, the world was electric with life. The silence was heavy and not an eye dared to shut longer than a blink. This was rebellion. You fight or you die.  Pre-hunger games, inspired by Taylor Swift's Safe and Sound Please R/R


The sky was a cold blanket of grayish white. Everything seemed pale and in shades of pastels. All contrast had dissolved; stark colors of war were lost through the night. I cradled your head against my chest, blond hair stuck to the fine glisten sweat on your face. Silent tears wet your cheeks and I rocked slightly in mechanical rhythm. I clutched at your arms, just a child. Your eyes were blank and barren, like glassy marble. You didn't see.

Neither did I.

A whispery lullaby escaped my lips, the only sound in an unearthly silent world. Birds didn't whistle down from the treetops, squirrels had long since evacuated. The extensive fires had been quenched. Smoke slithered mutely into the oblivion of the sky. A few broken people straggled around; pausing at fallen relatives or neighbor's collapsed homes covering their mouths or collapsing in shock. Heavy misery blotted out sound. Someone gasped for breath near me; in their state of grief, air was lost.

I felt frozen to the earth. The cold had long sense seeped into the marrow of my bones, a constant shiver had started in my chest and I took shaky breaths. I conjured up an image of my town before this horror. I could see the dirt roads, sunflowers and dandelions. The sun was warm.

But you were warm, you were my sun in that hour.

"I'll never let you go," I whispered.

You gave me sound like an injured lamb and clawed upwards at my shoulders. My forehead found the crown of your head and I gave myself away to tears. My stomach hiccupped and tears poured into your muddy hair.

"Stop," you said, so softly. It was the only sound in an otherwise barren world. It cut like a razor blade. I winced.

"Please, sissy," you breathed. "Please stop."

I shut my eyes and picked up my head. Her voice was like sandpaper, rough yet wispy.

"Yes, I—"

"Ssshhhh. Please, I can't stand the sound."

I forced my eyelids open and surveyed the valley. But just as quickly shut them again. The damage was done however. The image was burned onto my retinas. Bodies. So many bodies littered the streets and surrounding fields. People I knew and loved. The cobbler with the stutter. The baker who used to sneak me iced cake bits in the summer. The town's blacksmith who gave us a deal on horseshoes for Nova. My uncle.

My father.

I bit my lip to keep from wailing in agony.

"Aurelia."

My chest tightened. Just my name, his tone… I knew what was coming.

"Yes?" was my broken answer.

I could feel him pause in uncertainty. "I-it's time."

I didn't reply. I just kept my eyes shut against the world and cradled you against me. I stroked your thickening blond hair. I hummed out a low note, and you matched it with me. It was part misery part battle cry. It was a rise to defend the living. To avenge the dead. It was a promise. It resonated from within my lungs, and escaped my lips in a long note, broken yet strong.

I felt my caller step towards me and lay a hand on my back. He crouched down next to me and wrapped his thick arms around both you and I. I could feel you stiffen. You didn't like the stranger, but I whispered soothing words in your ear. You loosened you hold around my neck.

"Don't leave me here alone."

To this day, I don't know how you knew what I was doing. How you knew I wouldn't be coming back. How you knew every cell in my body was crying out in pain. How it went against every fiber of my being to do this to you. How you knew this was for your own good. How you could sense my love for you. My love for our father. My cry for vengeance. My wailing of grief.

"Dearest," I whispered, and my voice cracked like chapped lips. "You're never alone."

I could feel your tears fall onto my shoulder and run down my back. I took in a shuddering breath. Tears pooled in my eyes and pushed on the rims, threatening to spill over. Cool air filled my lungs and a haunting lullaby filled the air around us.

"_Just close your eyes,_

_the sun is going down, _

_you'll be alright, _

_no one can hurt you now, _

_come morning light, _

_you and I'll be safe and sound."_

I could feel my words begin to take effect. Your body loosened and your breathing became slower. The tears slowed. A serene expression took to your features. You slipped from my arms and flopped out of my lap to the dead grass of the ground. I fixed your hair around your face and arranged your hands to lay flat on your stomach. One of my salty tears splashed onto your comatose form.

If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought you were dead.

I curled up over my knees and belted out a guttural scream. It pierced the air and echoed around the valley. The sound was rough like splintered wood. It hurt as I left my mouth and cut up the inside of my throat. It was raspy and broken. It was misery.

I felt ridiculous, stupid, even. But I didn't care. Doing that to you killed something inside me. Some innocent part of me died that day. I felt the last of my air leave my lungs. I drew in a rattling breath for another shout, but Damon took me in his arms and I began to wail. I screamed and cried and kicked and screamed. I tore at my hair while he held me back. I fought his hands.

But if he hadn't been there to stop me, I probably would've killed myself.

"Sssshhh, Aurelia. She's not dead. She's not dead."

I just kept screaming and screaming until I grew too exhausted to fight both Damon and my grief. So I curled up on the ground and closed my eyes.

Eventually, Damon picked me up in a seamless motion and turned me away from the sight of you. He walked uphill, away from everything I cared about most in my life. He barely jostled me and I buried my face into his shirt.

"Goodbye," barely left my lips. The word was airy and lost in the wind.

"It's not goodbye, Aurelia," he said, and I felt the rumble of the words deep in his chest against my ear.

"It _is_ goodbye. At least, for me."

He seemed to understand the connotation and mercifully shut his mouth. I grasped tighter for his shirt. I pulled myself up to eyelevel with the two fistfuls of the strong cotton. I failed miserably and fell back against his arm.

"What is it?"

"The music," I choked, barely even a sound was uttered from my lips. "It's stopped."

He seemed to hold me tighter against him and I rebelled against it. I strained to peek around his torso. I could only catch sight of a slash of red against the pastels of the barren earth.

That was my last glimpse of you.

Damon had begun to hum to me. I could feel his chest expand with each breath. It was low and deep, haunting like a dark ocean. It was a strike of color in a black and white world. It resonated within him and forged a warm path before us.

I fell into a weighted sleep, my last sight of you red and caustic before my closed eyes.


End file.
